Jersey Boys leaves the audience just Beggin’ for more

The four seasons are hitting Glasgow this week and for once, we’re not talking about the weather.

Jersey Boys is the true story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and their rise to stardom from the wrong side of the tracks.

The four boys from New Jersey, USA became one of the most successful bands in pop history. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, having sold 100 million records worldwide, all before they turned 30.

The show is to be packed with hits including Beggin’, Sherry, Walk Like A Man, December, 1963 (Oh What a Night), Big Girls Don’t Cry, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You and Who Loves You.

The cast features Michael Pickering as Frankie Valli, Dalton Wood as Tommy De Vito, Blair Gibson as Bob Gaudio and Lewis Griffiths as Nick Massi.

This was the third time I’d seen Jersey Boys, and it just gets better and better with repeated viewing. It was also the third time I’d seen Griffiths as Massi, having caught him in the West End, and the previous tour of the production, and he absolutely owns the part. He plays the role with a hang-dog charm and had the audience eating out of his hand with his immaculate comedy timing, especially when he talks about going off to start his own band.

Pickering’s range as Valli is superb, hitting those shrill high notes with apparent ease, whilst Dalton Wood does a great job of making Tommy DeVito especially unlikeable, due to his arrogance and belief that he is always right.

Blair Gibson does a good job as the songwriting prodigy that was Gaudio, and gives him an everyman charm which makes him instantly endearing.

Jersey Boys is at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, until May 7

But the real stars of the show are the songs – so many of them have been covered by other acts who have effectively claimed them as their own (I’m thinking of the Bay City Rollers and Bye Bye, Baby), but here, we get them as they were originally intended, with a 60s American coolness.

I’m not the only one who loves Jersey Boys. Since opening on Broadway in 2005 and scooping up four Tony Awards including Best Musical, the show arrived in London’s West End in 2009 and ran for over nine years. International productions include US, UK and Ireland and Australian tours and runs Toronto, Dubai and Tokyo.

The record-breaking first UK and Ireland tour ran for 18 months from 2014 to 2016, selling more than 75,000 tickets. It’s a class act.